ND,I wonder if Martha Stewart would have done better with a court appointed attorney? Her penchant for being parsimonious convinced her to hire a high- priced deal-maker, who figured putting on a defense was not necessary since his client was "obviously" innocent. Maybe Martha should have retained this Sturdivant legal eagle. He might have got Martha off with 5 to 10 in Woolworth. A befiting sentence for the Matron of KMart.

Since I seem to suffer from aphasia from this foot (feet?) in my mouth, I can only respond through a non-verbal method of communication. Hence this extra post.

Hardrede,Now that is the kind of legal advice one would expect to pay $1000 an hour for.

Before anyone takes hardrede's advice, call Martha Stewart and ask her about the federal sentencing guidelines. I would bet she is an expert in this area about now. First offense for anything in the federal system does not automatically equate to no jail time.

ND,I can't immprove on, "As a "court appointed putz" myself," but AV ratings are peer (not wharf) reviews. And nobody gets less than an AV or a BB in the MH anyway.

Wrong again Arthur! Every lawyer listed on Martindale-Hubble does not receive at least an AV or a BB. I have a very good friend who happens to be a practicing attorney, in Birmingham, Michigan, and his listing has no rating at all. However, I don't think he is losing sleep over it, as he regularly pulls in over $500,000/ year, for his work. He specializes in corporate law, personal injury, and criminal law. Friend though he is, I hope he never starts collecting Thompsons, as he could probably corner the market! Regards, Walter

Walter,Before you start congratulating yourself in red, white and blue prose, a non- rating is not the same as a derogatory rating. Attorneys would never give any of their own a failing grade. And strictly speaking, you can't corner a market on a product that is not in its entirety up for sale.

Arthur, if it is not possible to corner the market on something which is not, in its entirety, up for sale, then why were people so worried that just that was possible, concerning the silver market, back in the eighties? Surely every piece of silver jewlery, silver coin and bar was not up for sale then, nor ever. Yet, leading economic theorists were worried about just such a possibility, at the time! Regards, Walter

If Bill Gates put out an ad in Shotgun News saying "I will pay $50,000 for ANY transferable Thompson" then it would instantly raise the value of any to $50,000. He would end up with hundreds of them, and it would corner the market of 'available' Thompsons.

And the lawyer, on $500,000 a year gross, he could buy about 6 a year after living expenses at current prices if he had no other interests.

Robert, I would imagine that he has saved some of his earnings since his practice began back in 1986. And, yes, he was only making $85,000-$200,000/ year, during his first five years, but with prudent saving and investing, who knows what he has amassed, in nearly twenty years! Regards, Walter

P.S. Since he is an intelligent attorney and economics professor, I don't think he would make the blunder of making the offer you have described. Rather, he would first, quietly buy as many Thompsons as he could, on the present market. Then, he might take out such an ad!!

AF is always wrong. He has nighmares about Russell McGuire all the time. Its always the same old dream. McGuire is torch cutting AF's 1928 colt into hundreds of pieces and forcing AF to eat them while still red hot. Poor, poor man.

The Fed's have been hot & heavy here in Alabama since about last year. This is due to the I.C.E. program (Isolating the Criminal Element). If they think they use a gun law, they will. A specific case in Selma comes to mind. A gentleman, last year, used a Carbon-15 to "carjack" a motorcycle after wrecking his car while pursuing his wifes lover. Before the "jacking" he fired several shots from a pistol at the car as it fled. The feds were so elated that they were to get to charge him with using an "assaulyt" weapon during a commission of a crime, the "carjacking". They were so happy they were going to get to use the mandatory minimum for using an "assualt" weapon, instead of the mandatory minimum for using just a rifle. Needless to say, the bubble was burst when one of the local employees of the police department pointed out to them that the Carbon-15,using the ATF guidelines, is not an "assault" weapon since it does not have any of those "evil" features such as flash hiders, bayonet lugs, folding/collapsing stocks etc.....

Warning to all you peace loving folks. If the assault weapons ban is allowed to expire we may see a dramatic increase in the number of bad guys who use a bayonet on the end of their rifle during the commission of their crime. This means if even one bad guy uses a bayonet that will allow the news media and the government to report a 100% increase in bayonet equiped weapons during the commisiion of a crime. Solution, a law against possession of bayonets (except by the goverment of course).

PhilOhio: Your thinking is ... well, cloudy at best. It is NOT necessary to ban duct tape entirely, only rolls in exess of 10 inches in length. In no time you will see the crime rate plummet. Ooops, I forgot about the billions of existing rolls of duct tape that the duct tape dealers have. No doubt we will see some profit taking by those lucky enough to have some. Of course if the "Duct tape crime victim safety act of 2004" is allowed to expire, the bottom may drop out on the price of "High capacity" rolls of duct tape. The thought makes me shudder.

Harderede: So what! You can only sell your rewelded rolls of duct tape to someone who presents a letter on law enforcement letterhead that their department in interested in buying your "post Sample" duct tape. The law will work if you reactionaries will just give it a chance. Hell, I feel safer already. And don't forget the best advice our government ever gave anyone - "If they hijack your plane just give in, we will apprehend them when they get back on the ground. Help is just a phone call away."

PhilOhio, I think you're right about the butcher knives. Besides, it fits right in with another liberal whacko idea, vegetarianism! When the libs are through with us, the wildlife will be hunting us, as we will be malnourished and defenseless!!

I can tell you that if the guy received home detention and probation he lucked out.

A couple of years ago I received a call of full auto fire going on south of town. I did a signal 30 of the area and sure enough I heard the unmistakeable sounds of a machine gun. Calling another officer for back up we moved in on the shooter, who was shooting along a river.

The guy had an SKS with a 30 shot mag that was firing full auto. He claimed that he had purchased it from an individual in the parking lot of the local Army Navy store, and was unaware of the tampering that had been done to the weapon. I told the fellow that I believed him, but his big mistake was to continue firing the weapon after he found out it was full auto.

The town cop took over the case as it was within the two mile corporate limit of his town...this was fine with me. The last I heard was that the guy did receive his 10 year Federal sentance, the 10 G fine...all after spending over 15 G on an attorney trying to stay out of the slammer.

Was this guy guilty? In my opinion his only mistake was the continued firing of the weapon. He would have been much better off to have gone directly to the police, explained the situation and surrendered the weapon. The rifle itself had gone through several transactions from the original owner, and the guy who did the actual altering is still walking around free...at least free from this situation.

BTW...with the current building boom going on, and the continued migration of city folk to the country, we receive calls all the time reporting gunfire. Each one of these call must be followed up on. 99.9 percent of the time it's a legitimate hunter or shooter. These former ubranites just can't get used to the sound of weapons going off in the country. They want to bring their city ordinances with them...seriously, last year a woman called in to report a farmer who left mud on the road with his tractor and didn't clean it up! The times are changing rapidly.

Almost as good as building your dreamhouse next to a pig farm that's 100 years old, then trying to force the farmer to relocate because the smell prevents you enjoying your bacon and eggs in the morning.

The other side of the urban migration is many come to the country and take up shooting without any idea of proper safety or etiquette, and then the Forest Service closes public land to recreational shooting. Rather than arresting the offenders for reckless endangerment, wanton destruction, or wildlife harassment. Nearly every spring i go up and haul bags of trash out- spent cases, empty cartridge boxes, etc. It reflects badly on all of us that enjoy shooting.